Rachel Allen on taking a seat in the presenter's chair on RTÉ's Today 

"It’s nice to have a bit of a change... I adore Dáithí and Maura and I've known them for years and years, so it'll be lovely to do it."

Rachel Allen

Rachel Allen is an early riser. Up with the dawn, she has her first cup of tea of the day in silence before she heads out for her morning swim. It’s a ritual she’s had in place for more than two years.

“My friend, Helen, was at the beach this morning and she said just as we were getting into the water, how can you tell if someone swims in the sea every day? And I said, laughing, they’ll tell you!” 

Rachel isn’t a fair-weather swimmer though, she’s in the water at Ballynamona beach come rain or shine, something she says is great for her mind. 

“It's a lovely way to start the day. As we always say when we're walking in, even this morning when it was windy and a bit cold, you never regret it coming out. You just always feel better for it, which is probably why half the country are doing it.

“My sister's been sea swimming for about four years and she always found that it really helped her. A couple of years ago when I was really stressed, actually our dad had just died, my sister said, 'you need get into the water'. 

"I was in Dublin just after the funeral and Simone said 'come on, you're coming to the sea with me'. I wasn’t convinced, I used to swim a bit in the summer, but she persisted and said she thought I needed it. You need it for your head, she said, and that was it.

“It can be cold, of course, but as long as you just have something warm which you can get into afterwards and bring a hot coffee or something nice you’re fine. What’s been good about the pandemic, if anything is, is that it's had lots of people out swimming but even that can be quite divisive. A little territorial.

“My friend and I go to the beach every morning and there’s another group that swim there too — including Trish, who I've known for years and even now at about seven months pregnant is still getting in every single day. But this one morning there were two other people there and we thought the place was packed. It was hilarious, I’m not sure how we’ll feel when everything opens up again.” 

The one person Rachel can’t convince to jump in the sea with her is her husband, Isaac. She laughs at the suggestion.

“Not a chance, no. Actually, I think he loves it when I go because that's when he has his coffee in peace. I'm usually quite chatty first thing in the morning so he enjoys the quiet.” 

Like everyone, Rachel is missing loved ones while the country has been in lockdown, her middle child, Lucca, left home for Tokyo at the start of March. He’s a Formula Four driver and will spend the year racing in Japan.

“He'll be 19 at the end of June and he's quite determined, single-minded, independent and focused. He lived out there for a few months last year and he's there again now. He'll be there for most of the year but hopefully he'll get to come back for a six-week break in the summer, all going well. 

"He missed the first round of testing because he was under quarantine, so he'll just get a little time to practice before the first race begins on Easter weekend.” 

The other person Rachel is really missing is her mum in Dublin. While it’s a big comfort that her sister, Simone, lives close by it’s not the same as being able to see her in person.

“I literally think since last March I've seen her twice. Once when I was filming in Dublin for a day, I drove up to see her but I didn't even stay with her. And then in August when we were out of lockdown we saw her. It just feels crazy.” 

But even while missing loved ones and going through tough times of her own, Rachel is doing her best to remain positive and upbeat and really thinking about people who may be in a far tougher situation than she is.

“I’ve been really well, yes, I have been actually. I do count myself very lucky to live in a place where I can get out and get fresh air and I do try and focus on that, really.

“You hear all the time that people's anxieties are sky-high from lots of different things happening. I’ve heard stories about a man who was shouting at people because they were walking near his field and I just thought, that poor man, he probably lives on his own, he's probably actually terrified.

“I think at the moment everyone's anxieties are valid. Everyone's stressed and I really think if someone reacts in a funny way, we all just have to take a deep breath and not react ourselves, do you know what I mean?

“And I really think about people who are elderly or who are unwell and have life-limiting conditions and thinking this might be my time to live. I might not have much more time. Oh God, you really get very melancholy thinking about it all, but I really think we all have to consider everyone's anxieties. It's very easy to point fingers and shame, point fingers and blame but you just simply can't do that, you can't.” 

Rachel Allen

One thing that has been taking Rachel’s mind off things is work. She’s been busy with the Ballymaloe online cookery school and has been hard at work on a new cookbook which will be announced this week. This Tuesday, April 6, she adds another string to her already very accomplished bow as she joins Dáithí Ó Sé to become a guest presenter of Today.

“I'm looking forward to it, it will be really nice. I used to present a programme called Market Kitchen in England and I went to London for two days every month but that was about 10 years ago, so I haven't really done any presenting for a long time.

“It’s nice to have a bit of a change and I will actually be cooking in the kitchen as well, which will be great. I adore Dáithí and Maura and I've known them for years and years, so it'll be lovely to do it.

“It will be so nice to get out of the house because I've really just been working from home or from the cookery school for months. I just finished my cookery book last week. It’s actually cookbook 15 which is crazy, I don't know how that happened.

“I've really just been at home writing, testing recipes for months, although I love that part, it’s just the editing that is a bit of a drag. We did a socially distanced shoot for it too which was great.” The only time Rachel has been leaving the house has been to swim and to go to Ballymaloe where she hosts cookalongs for students all over the world, something she says they are hoping to continue even when life returns to normal.

“I love the cookalongs, they’ve been really good actually. We started the Ballymaloe Cookery School online this time last year really, when the first lockdown hit, people can subscribe to a course or they can join up for just one particular class. We had been talking about the Ballymaloe Cookery School online for a few years. My brother-in-law, Toby, is very technically minded so he's always seen potential for this.

Darina and Rory have been going through lots of the demonstrations, but I really enjoy the cookalongs because I love being able to communicate with people.

“We've had a lot of Americans taking part, so I do them at 5:30 in the evening so it's morning time or noon depending on where they are in the States. There was one lady, and she asked me if her soup was blended enough and I asked if she could show me, maybe angle her iPad a little differently and she goes ‘ok, ok I'm trying’ and that’s when she dropped her iPad in the soup! It survived but it was hilarious.” 

A little light relief is what everyone needs at the moment. Rachel and Isaac’s daughter, Scarlett, is in sixth class and brought her books home from school for the Easter holidays in case there was a chance classes wouldn’t be back after the break.

A return to homeschooling is not something that Rachel would relish.

“Her teachers were awesome. They were just so supportive and kind when I really was having problems trying to get it all done. They were so great and said, ‘look anything is a bonus just try and do whatever you can’. 

"They were lovely when I was literally in tears trying to write a book and work and manage it all. Hopefully it won’t go back to that. I mean it's ridiculous, not being sure if our if our children are going to school. It's just insane. It’s all been insane, hasn’t it?”